Road Trip
by shadowmaat
Summary: It's Kevin's (Space Core's) birthday and Craig and Rick are taking him to the planetarium to celebrate. Pre-core stuff, set in the Geekenders 'verse.


It had taken a lot of planning, a fair amount of wheedling, and a couple of big favors called in, but at last Craig had managed to arrange a trip to the city to see the new planetarium. It was meant as a surprise for Kevin's birthday. Rick, of course, had started off with an elaborate story involving spies and secret documents in a locked case, but Craig had cut him off at the part about the helicopters with laser-tipped laser beams and said they were taking a road trip and there might be ice cream. That was enough for Kevin.

They piled into Craig's beat-up Datsun and set off. Kevin sat in front and played with the knobs on the dash while Rick crammed himself into the back, grumbling about the unfairness of it all. He did, however, contribute a tape collection that was perfectly suited to Kevin; a couple of movie soundtracks (although, oddly, no _Star Wars_), a space-themed collection from a rather ominously-named man called Dr. Demento, and a David Bowie collection, which was about as out there as you could get.

Kevin picked the Demented thing first, which seemed to be novelty music and parodies. He knew them all and even sang along in places. For someone whose main form of communication was saying "space" he had a surprisingly good voice. Maybe they should take him out more often.

Rick spent most of the ride trying to correct Craig's driving. "Hurry up, Grandma, we'd like to get there some time this year!" "Slow down! Are you trying to get us killed?" "I think that's our turn up ahead." "Are you sure you know where you're going?" "Where'd you get your license, a Cracker Jack box?" Craig tuned him out and followed the map. Contrary to the dire predictions from the back they made good time and Kevin's shocked gasp and look of awe as the dome of the planetarium came into sight made it worth it.

"Space?!" He turned to look at Craig. "Planets? _Planetarium?!_"

"Yes, we-"

"Happy birthday, Kev!" Rick leaned between them from the back seat. "I heard about this place and thought it'd be perfect for you!"

"You mean I heard about it," Craig corrected, pulling into a parking space. "It was my idea, but we worked together to make it happen."

"That's what I said, pipsqueak."

Kevin had his fist pressed to his mouth as he regarded them both. "Best space friends!"

Craig continued to argue semantics with Rick as they got out of the car, but Kevin got between them, draped his arms over their shoulders in a group hug, and paraded them towards the entrance.

"So much SPAAACE!" he whooped.

Rick leaned forward to look past him at Craig. "Tell me again why I agreed to do this?"

"Because you're a good friend," Craig said. "And because I agreed to write your weekly report so you could Alisha from the harmonics department out to dinner."

"Alison." Rick smiled. "That's right. Onward we go, then!"

It wasn't that simple, of course. Once the tickets were paid for and they were inside there was a an hour wait for the next show. Kevin dragged Craig from display to display, naming off and explaining as much as his impediment allowed. Between that and the singing in the car it was the most he'd heard out of the astronaut wannabe in a long time. It was more proof this had been the right decision. He smiled, correcting a few minor points here and there and expanding on a couple of things, but mostly letting Kevin rattle on to his heart's content.

Being away from the lab was… nice. Which wasn't a thing he'd expected to feel. So much of his life lately was devoted to work. Analysis and testing, deadlines and budget restrictions. It was easy to forget the outside world existed, but they'd passed wheat fields and apple orchards and wildflowers. The sky was blue and the air was unrecycled. There were people here he didn't know and a whole lot of new information he could take in. And Kevin was, well, over the moon.

Craig had a lot of associates at Aperture, but if he was really honest with himself, he didn't have many friends. It wasn't from lack of trying, it seemed to be a lack of understanding about how the process worked. No one seemed to share his interests and whenever he tried to share some of the things he knew they always remembered some urgent task that required them to be elsewhere. Kevin was one of the few who seemed to appreciate him and was always willing to listen (as long as he was talking about space).

Rick was a friend, too, in his own way. As long as you broadened the definition to include "constantly teasing, belittling, criticizing, pranking, and attempting to one-up and generally acting like a blowhard." Which was fine. For all of his mockery there were still occasional glimpses of humanity underneath. Like the music collection. And if he'd bailed on them as soon as they were through the door he'd still be waiting for them when the show was ready to start.

They arrived at the theater twenty minutes early because Kevin wanted to make sure they got good seats, although as far as Craig could tell the crowds were a little sparse at midweek. Rick was, as expected, waiting for them. He was trying to chat to the lady collecting tickets and he had a bag from the gift shop dangling from one hand. Craig gave him a narrow-eyed look, not trusting the smirk he got in reply.

"It's about time you two showed up," Rick said. "I was just talking to the lovely Patrice, here-"

Patrice gave a small wave.

"-and she told me where I could find the best seats in the house."

Kevin's eyes widened. "Best space seats?"

"The very best. C'mon, let's go in!"

"Planetariums are designed and the programs orchestrated to ensure that every seat is a good seat," Craig grumbled, following them. Patrice winked at him as she stood by the door. Yes, well…

The show itself seemed to be pretty standard fare, at least from Craig's point of view (which was just as good as everyone else's view, here). Kevin spent most of it with one hand clamped over his mouth to stifle his excitement and the other gesticulating wildly at the things being shown to them. The trip through the tail of a comet was fascinating, and it was interesting to see their take on moon facts, given that they had some personal experience with it, but he felt they went a little far with the scaremongering about the threat of asteroids. A pass that close to Earth just wasn't very likely.

Afterwards Rick showed them what he'd bought in the gift shop, and it was exactly what Craig had feared it would be.

"ASTRONAUT ICE CREAM!" Kevin snatched the foil package away from Rick and tore into it.

"That was supposed to be _my_ contribution," Craig said, reading the back of the package Rick handed to him.

Rick was crushing the contents of his pack. "You snooze, you lose, runt." He tore off a corner and poured the powder into his mouth.

While he was choking, Craig broke off a small piece of pink and stuck it on his tongue. His nose wrinkled and lips curled back from his teeth.

"You have it." He handed the rest of the package to Kevin.

Kevin stared at him, chocolate already smudging the corners of his mouth. "Spfffce?"

He nodded. "The lyophilization process leaves much to be desired."

Kevin hugged him and accepted the offering. Rick leaned against the wall, wheezing.

"What in tarnation is this stuff?"

"Dehydrated lipids, processed sugars, emulsifiers, natural and artificial flavorings, and food dyes." Craig smirked.

Rick stared at him and handed his ice cream over to Kevin. "Y'know, I'm really beginning to understand why you can't get a date."

"Did you know that people who don't date are twice as likely not to suffer from venereal diseases?"

"Oh yeah? Well… your mom!"

Kevin's stuffed chunks of ice cream in his mouth, his head swiveling from side to side as he watched them. "Spff Mum?"

"You try explaining it to him," Craig said. "I have to go to the gift shop since it seems I need to find something for someone."

He left Rick sputtering and browsed through the small gift shop for something he could give as a birthday present. There were a lot of options, from NASA mission patches to glow-in-the-dark stars to a wall-size mural of the moon's surface. The last was past his budget allowance, unfortunately, but he found a clip-together model of the lunar orbiter that would do nicely. He also looked through racks of names until he found a certificate declaring **KEVIN** to be an honorary astronaut. It was perfect. Better than ice cream.

Purchases made, he left the shop to find a distinct lack of Kevin and Rick. They wouldn't leave him, would they? "Rick would."

His keys were still in his pocket, though, and Rick was more likely to electrocute himself than be able to hotwire a car. He headed outside.

"SPAAAAACE!" Kevin raced by, arms outstretched, showing off a NASA t-shirt. He was wearing a fedora.

"Get back here!" Rick was chasing after him without much success. Kevin banked left and Rick almost flattened himself on the hood of a car. "Tha- that's my hat!" He paused, hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath.

Kevin caught sight of Craig and looped around to stop beside him. He tipped his stolen hat, grinning. "Howdy, space pardner!"

Craig tilted his head back, looking up at him. "We gave you too much sugar, didn't we?"

"Space fuel!" He did a couple of jumping jacks.

Rick jogged up to them. "Good job, Kev! Ha! Another lap and you might have won!"

Craig saw Kevin rolls his eyes as Rick snatched the hat back and put it on.

"What do you think, Craig? This is a real adventurer's hat! I got it from the gift shop!" He ran his thumb along the brim and smiled.

There were several things he could have said, but it was a long drive back to Aperture. He shook his head. "Hey, Kevin, I got you something."

"Space gift?" Kevin tried to grab the bag. "Birthday?"

"No appreciation for fashion," Rick muttered.

"Space-themed birthday gifts, yes." Craig pulled out the model first. "I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to wrap it."

Kevin picked up the box, turning it over carefully. "Moon lander? Moon lander! " He sighed heavily. "Wanna go to the moon. Wanna go to space."

"We're still working on that. But in the meantime…" Craig handed him the certificate.

Kevin's gaze flicked across the paper, reading. He let out a small gasp and looked at Craig. "Me? Honorary astronaut?"

"It has your name on- mmph!" He was lifted off the ground in a crushing hug. There was a yelp as Rick slammed into him and they were both swung back and forth.

"S- s- thanks!" Kevin said. "Best space birthday ever!"

Once they regained their footing Craig and Rick exchanged a look.

"We make a pretty good team, huh?" Rick punched him in the arm.

"It's certainly an interesting one." Craig rubbed his arm.

Kevin was already heading back to the car, the model in one hand and the certificate in the other.

"Not bad choices," Rick admitted.

"The t-shirt was a nice touch, too."

"He tried to change right there in the lobby." Rick laughed. "I had to drag him into the men's room before we got caught." There was a pause. "He has scars, y'know."

Craig made sure Kevin was preoccupied trying to open the box before he answered. "We'll never know what they did to him."

"No." Rick made a fist. "But if I ever get my hands on them…"

"At least we can try and make sure it doesn't happen again." Their eyes locked.

"Damn right," Rick said. "He's an annoying, loud, space-obsessed freak, but he's ours. And by the way, I'm driving. Otherwise we'll be on the road all night."

"Are you sure you can even keep us on the road?" Craig handed him the keys. He was tired anyway, and he wanted to see if Rick was as superior as he thought he was.

"Not only will I keep us on the road, little man, I'll get us home faster than you got us here!" He unlocked the doors.

"This is going to be good."

"Space!"

Kevin took the back seat this time, already working to put his model together. Craig stuck a _Best of Queen_ tape he didn't remember seeing before in the tape player and tried to ignore Rick's unnecessary revving of the engine.

They got lost three times, had to ask directions from a suspicious-looking but helpful man in a weird leather mask, and then ran out a gas a mile outside of Caveopolis, the company town for employees who wanted the illusion of freedom from the facility. Craig had turned down Rick's invitation to stay at his place, but by the time he got back to his own bed, it was almost time to start his shift. He decided to nap anyway, envying Kevin, who'd fallen asleep after they'd passed the broken combine harvester for the second time and who was probably having great space dreams down in the parking garage.

Space dreams. Ha. Craig closed his eyes. What would he do if space didn't exist…


End file.
